Not enough fight from sleepy Bills

Sure it happens, no doubt, but it's become a crutch for bad teams playing out the string.

Truth is, many of these teams that "quit" simply are not very good. Of course, it would be nice if the Buffalo Bills showed a little more fight Sunday in Miami.

The Chan Gailey Era in Buffalo has been defined by long stretches of bad football. From starting the 2010 season 0-8, to finishing 2011 3-10, and allowing 50 points twice and 45 points four times this season, the Bills have not made nearly enough progress under Gailey.

Many are calling for Gailey's job, but it's still a better than 50 percent chance he returns unless Ralph Wilson has decided he has the strength for another overhaul.

As bizarre as it may sound, one could easily argue that Gailey's best coaching job with the Bills was in that 4-12 2010 season. The team showed plenty of fight that season, but simply lacked talent at nearly every position.

This season was supposed to be different. While the playoff expectations were overstating the talent on this current roster, the Bills needed to be better than this in 2012.

There were games like the ones in San Francisco and Toronto, or the home game against the Patriots where the Bills' defense was severely overmatched.

The offense also took a step back in a season where the Bills discovered C.J. Spiller is a star-in-waiting.
It shouldn't have been this bad for the Bills. Despite all the changes and upgrades, the Bills still are better at finding ways to lose rather than winning close games.

The Bills let a golden opportunity slip away this season. Even though the Bills really weren't a true playoff-caliber team, they could have — and should have — still been in contention for a wild card spot when they took the field in Miami.

The Bills let games against Tennessee and St. Louis get away that they had no business losing. The too-conservative Gailey and mediocre Ryan Fitzpatrick teamed to help the Bills lose those games and eliminate them from the playoffs for a 13th straight season.

The Bills' roster has good parts, but it's difficult to get overly excited over a player like Spiller when he's underused by his coach and it doesn't lead to many wins.

After three years with Gailey and general manager Buddy Nix big changes still need to be made. The lack of fight in several games by this team should make most of the roster expendable.

Spiller is a good start and re-signing Andy Levitre and Jairus Byrd also must be done this off-season, but the Bills need to be aggressive, if not unconventional.

Take a page out of the Washington Redskins' book and trade a bunch of draft picks to move up and get a quarterback you love, if it comes down to it. The Bills cannot stand idly by while other teams get better and they remain stuck in quicksand.

If Gailey and Nix are going to stay, then they need to really think about doing something big to get that franchise quarterback. Nix can't sit back in April and tell the fans that a franchise quarterback was not available, or they were not in position to get one.

Nix needs to do whatever it takes and at the very least give Fitzpatrick some true competition for his job. While Nix has done a solid job plugging certain holes on this roster, he's failed miserably in addressing the quarterback position.

As for the defense, well, we know that's still an issue since they can't dominate terrible offenses every week.

The Bills sure helped their draft position with that lackluster performance in Miami, but Gailey needs to win games to come back as head coach and his players didn't help him out much.

Of course, even if the Bills lose again on Sunday against the New York Jets, it's still very possible that the whole gang could be back to go for an even 14 straight years without the playoffs.

Don't forget to renew those season tickets.

Follow Paul Jannace on Twitter @pjscribe.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.